Behind My Mask
by xXxXBOTDF136XxXx
Summary: Max Ride is at her breaking point. There is too much going on, too much stress and she can't handle it anymore. In a moment of weakness she does something she will regret forever. Then, she is forced to go on an adventure to save the people she loves most. The first chapter is really short, but it's more of a prologue. One of Max's abilities is she is an Empath, btw! Fax! R&R! :)
1. Chapter 1

_**I stared over the ledge. **_

_**A crowd had now gathered below me. **_

_**The police department was here, so was an ambulance, and a fire truck, and my principal was down there, along with like all the teachers and staff and all of the students, and some just regular pedestrians…**_

_**all watching me…**_

_**Just one more step…**_

_**that's all it would take…**_

_**and it'd all be over…**_

_**"Max," **_

_**I heard my name said from behind me, it was the familiar voice of my best friend, Fang. **_

_**"Max, Don't do this. Don't just throw away your life, it's not worth it." **_

_**I hated this. **_

_**I hated when people voiced opinions on things when they don't have a clue…**_

_**they don't understand….**_

_**They couldn't understand…**_

_**"Come on, Max, just come down. It'll be alright." he lied. **_

_**It was never going be alright.**_

_**Never. **_

_**Not until it ended.**_

_**"I can't," I answered, not moving. **_

_**"Yes, you can Max, just take a step back." **_

_**See, he didn't understand. He would **_**never**_** understand. **_

_**I leaned forward a little, and I heard several screams for below and Fang curse loudly. **_

_**It's not like I'd be hurting anybody. **_

_**Everybody would probably be better off anyways if I was gone. **_

_**Nobody should have to put up with me...**_

_**All I am doing is making more peoples more complicated and miserable….**_

_**All I am is miserable… **_

_**One step and it's all over…**_

_**No one would ever be that upset…**_

_**People may be sad for a day…. And then they would just forget about it and go on with their lives….**_

_**I glanced down at my arm….**_

_**Seeing all of the scars covering my arms….**_

_**Criticism.**_

_**That's what I'm gonna get for the rest of my life because of them…**_

_**but nobody understands that **_**they**_** are the cause….**_

_**I just did it to prove that they weren't the only ones who can hurt me…**_

_**I can't handle them hurting me anymore…. **_

_**I stepped forward, stepping off the four story building that was my school…**_

_**I fell, and kept falling and then…darkness….**_


	2. Chapter 2

_**I looked around the room. **_

_**I recognized most of the people in the room. **_

_**Fang, Iggy, Angel, Nudge, Gazzy, and Jeb… there was also two guys in lab coats. **_

_**Oh, okay, they're doctors… I think…**_

_**One of them was thin with short brown hair that was turning grey and wore thick black glasses and then other was a bald guy that was built and had a kinda pale face.**_

_**My flocks' eyes were glazed with tears. **_

_**Fang was staring out the window, his expression deadpan. **_

_**He showed no emotion. **_

_**I looked at Iggy, he was sitting in a hospital chair,**_

_**Staring at nothing, and he had tear streaks down his face but was trying his best not to show it.**_

_**I couldn't see Nudge's face… she had her head against the wall…**_

_**I walked up to Fang, "Hey," **_

_**His expression didn't change…he didn't even act like he saw me…**_

_**"Hello? Fang, hey. Listen. To. Me." **_

_**No change.**_

_**"Ugh," I complained.**_

_**What was I a ghost or something? **_

_**That shit wasn't real. **_

_**We weren't in a frickin movie. **_

_**This was real. **_

_**I walked over to Iggy. **_

_**He would notice me for sure. **_

_**"Iggy!" I shouted right in his face. **_

_**"Ig!"**_

_**I jumped up and down in front of everyone a few times, waving my arms around. **_

_**"Hellooooooo," I said tapping him on the side of the head. **_

_**"Earth to Iggy." still no sign that he saw me. **_

_**"Damn it, Iggy, pay attention asshole!"**_

_**He still didn't move. **_

_**WTF? **_

_**I looked around the room.**_

_**How can they not see me? **_

_**These people are having some serious issues if they can't see a fucking chic standing right in front of them!**_

_**Holy shit!**_

_**I think I see me lying in a hospital bed. **_

_**This is some wicked shit. **_

_**Am I on something? **_

_**Was I drugged? **_

_**Why in the fuck am I double me? **_

_**And how come nobody can hear me or see me? **_

_**I walked over to the chic in the hospital bed and looked at her face. **_

_**Yep, defiantly me… **_

_**How is it me?! **_

_**Am I dead?**_

_**Am I alive? **_

_**What the hell is going on? **_

_**I pressed my fingers to her- I mean my - neck… **_

_**Holy shit no pulse…**_

_**I'm dead…**_

_**I am fucking dead…**_

_**I'm not living...**_

_**I have no life….**_

_**Nothing…I am nothing…**_

_**I'm dead….**_

_**And alone…**_

_**And dead…**_

_**I'm dead.**_

_**I died.**_

_**How did I die?**_

_**Why don't I remember? **_

_**Was I sick? **_

…_**.Did I cut too deep? **_

_**I looked down at my arm, I pulled up the sleeve of my shirt….**_

_**Nope…that's not what happened…**_

_**There was just the same scars that have been there…**_

_**I have to figure out what the hell happened…**_

_**I walked over to the door and opened it and walked out.**_

_**I needed answers and apparently I wasn't going to find them in there. **_


	3. Chapter 3

I walked through the hospital and still nobody paid any mind to the 5'7 chic who was walking down the hallway.

How can nobody see me? I just don't understand it. I'm not invisible. I looked around. There was this girl who was looking in my direction…. No, she was looking at me… _Me_.

So she saw me?

I was there.

So….who was having the issues?

Was I invisible or were they just not looking?

I walked up to the chic.

She was short, well shorter than me, with deathly pale skin and the girl had long straight black hair that fell to her hips… She looked sickly… She was also so skinny… Basically just skin and bones… Like she had been starved… And she had these dark eyes that looked so dull and depressed…. Her eyes almost looked black in the lighting… Her eyes were so…

Empty…

I walked over to her, but she just averted her eyes and stared at down at her feet.

Coincidence?

Was I just hallucinating?

Or did she really not see me?

I decided to just kept walking and walked out of the doors of the hospital.

I had to figure out what the hell was going on.

I mean, surely I wasn't dead. Death can't be this confusing. Everybody always says that death is a release.

A peace.

A rest.

It makes everything be okay, and this was not okay.

I still felt my pain.

I still felt everybody's emotions.

I haven't been released of my empathy.

I was still an empath…

And that sucked.

Royally.

I hated having to feel the emotions of everybody around me…

I'm pretty sure if my mom wouldn't have taught me how to block it then my brain would have exploded.

The rest of the flock is sooo lucky, they doesn't have to deal with feeling the emotions of everyone around you… Plus your own emotions…

And thanks to the great memory, all day every day all that happens is the explosion replays in my mind, over and over.

Me being right there, in the parking lot when the car burst into flames.

Screaming as I saw my mother's death.

They say that the there was a gas that was released when the engine started, right before the explosion.

They say that she was instantly killed, but I swear I heard her scream.

I swear I saw the panic in her eyes.

I swear felt her pain as she knew that it was over.

She wouldn't get to see her seven-year-old twins grow up….

And I was standing there.

Not ten foot from her.

To this day I hate myself because I swear that there has to be something I could have done to save her.

There has to be something that I could have done to save my mother…

I looked around…

I was sitting on some pavement, behind some old building.

There was nobody around.

I looked around and saw my pocket knife laying near…

I picked it up… And pulled up my sleeve of my shirt… Then I ran the blade across my arm…

I watched the crimson pour from my arm…

I felt the relief…

I couldn't be dead and still feel this much pain… I just couldn't…

I looked up and there was the girl that I saw earlier, staring at my now bloody arm…


	4. Chapter 4

_**"Hey," I said quietly.**_

_**She just stared at me. **_

_**"Hello," I said a little bit louder. **_

_**"He's coming for you too." she said in a voice that didn't even seem alive. **_

_**It was actually quite creepy.**_

_**Then she kinda… Flickered… And then disappeared… **_

_**What the fuck? **_

_**What was that? **_

_**Who is coming to get me and why? **_

_**I mean, I know I make enemies easily but damn…. **_

_**I stood up, and pulled my sleeve back down, and quickly paced from that area, since I was apparently being stalked by a crazy psycho bitch. I shuddered…**_

_**Wow… **_

_**Being dead couldn't be this confusing… **_

_**I walked down Freightford street,. I don't even know what I'm looking for... **_

_**I just want answers. **_

_**I know nothing and I need to know something. **_

_**I decided I would just go back to the hospital for now…**_

**Fang's POV**

I was panicking, I mean my best friend was dead… she was fucking dead… I had lost the one and only person I had ever loved…

I walked out behind the hospital, taking out my pocket knife and running it a crossed my arm repeatedly…

I couldn't deal with this shit…

I just fucking wanted it to be over…

I couldn't live without her.

I just fucking couldn't…

"**Fang," **I heard her voice…

I heard her fucking voice from behind my…

Now I was fucking hallucinating…

"**Fang. Listen to me. Please." **

I turned around, seeing her….

I saw Max…

She was standing in front of me…

But how the fuck was that possible?! She was dead! I fucking saw her die!

"_**M… M… Max…." **_I stuttered.

"**Yes, Fang, it's me. Please don't do this. You have to be there for the flock. They need you." **She told me.

"**Max, you're dead. You're dead; I fucking saw it with my own fucking eyes." **

"**Yeah… I am dead… But I'm still here, and something really fucked up is going on, but I'm trying to figure it out but I have to know that you will take care of the kids." **

"**But… If I was there with you I could help you…" **

"**Fang. No, you have to keep the flock safe. Okay?"**

My heart was racing… What the fuck was going on?!

"**Okay..." **I told her.

"**Promise me you won't do anything bad, promise me that you will take care of the flock and make sure they stay safe." **

She was pretty much begging me to keep the flock safe…

"**Alright, I promise you that I will stay alive, and take care of the flock…" **I told her. It was taking all the willpower I had to not break down in tears.

"**Thank you, Fang." **She told me, and then disappeared….


End file.
